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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23594293">Thereafter</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarahjoyce/pseuds/zarahjoyce'>zarahjoyce</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dash! Bullet! [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Zero-One, Tokusatsu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Gen, especially when Yua finally Does That Thing, please do it soon, speculations on future eps</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:55:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>609</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23594293</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarahjoyce/pseuds/zarahjoyce</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Fuwa laughs. "Are you saying you were going to betray him eventually?"</p><p>She turns to him, annoyed. "You're <i>not</i> the only one who hates him."</p><p>That just makes him laugh harder.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Fuwa Isamu &amp; Yaiba Yua, Fuwa Isamu/Yaiba Yua</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dash! Bullet! [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1709425</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Thereafter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_sappir/gifts">blue_sappir</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She watches Amatsu Gai limp away, leaving behind a great deal of carnage that their battle has caused--</p><p>--leaving two broken Kamen Riders who <em>very evidently</em> defeated him - despite the odds.</p><p>Fuwa rolls to his back, breathing hard, almost wheezing.</p><p>She, on the other hand, feels her heart beat in her ears, an erratic rhythm that proves she's survived <em>this</em> - that she's alive. Somehow. Her beaten bones and aching limbs are testaments to that sorry fact.<br/>
<br/>
And yet it's the silence <em>in her head</em> that unsettles her.<br/>
<br/>
There is no order for her to follow him, follow him, <em>follow him.<br/>
<br/>
</em>No constant stream of instructions that ceases only when she forces herself to act. <br/>
<br/>
No movements of her own body without her explicit authority.<br/>
<br/>
There's just her own pain, her own breath - and that of Fuwa's right behind her. <br/>
<br/>
"Feels good, doesn't it?" he asks, sounding out of sorts himself, "That I let you give him the final blow?"<br/>
<br/>
"There is no--" <br/>
<br/>
The rebuttal rises fast to her lips.<br/>
<br/>
And yet--<br/>
<br/>
<em>Go, Yaiba!<br/>
<br/>
Finish him!<br/>
<br/>
</em>"It was just a matter of time," she says instead, testing slowly if her own legs can support her upright. When she finds out they can't, she lets herself sit first, one knee raised so she can rest her head on it.<br/>
<br/>
Fuwa laughs. "Are you saying you were going to betray him eventually?"<br/>
<br/>
She turns to him, annoyed. "You're <em>not</em> the only one who hates him."<br/>
<br/>
That just makes him laugh harder.<br/>
<br/>
Irritated that she's allowing herself to <em>be </em>irritated, she glances at him again, lets her gaze roam up and down his beaten body and says, "You <em>need</em> to go to the hospital."<br/>
<br/>
He cranes his neck to face her. "Look who's talking." Fuwa places a hand on his forehead and coughs. "Man, his upgrade's <em>a bitch.</em> I almost wiped the floor with both of you the last time and now--"  <br/>
<br/>
"Just be thankful then that I know its weaknesses," she tells him loftily - making him roll his eyes at her tone.<br/>
<br/>
It was a calculated risk, goading Gai to try on his newest form--<br/>
<br/>
--a form that <em>she </em>helped develop. <br/>
<br/>
A form that she now helped <em>destroy--<br/>
<br/>
</em>--with him <em>in </em>it<em>.</em><br/>
<br/>
"Oh, I am," Fuwa affirms. <em>"Anything</em> that can wipe that fucking smirk off his face, I'm all grateful for." He pauses - and in a tone that's him <em>obviously </em>trying to sound overtly casual he continues, "Just as I am grateful that you managed to finally open your fucking eyes."<br/>
<br/>
If she's surprised, she finds herself able to suppress expressing it.<br/>
<br/>
"Careful," she cautions. "Any more of that and I might just think you're actually concerned for me."<br/>
<br/>
He turns to her again, grimaces, reaches out - and tugs her arm hard enough that she ends up sprawled haphazardly right next to him.<br/>
<br/>
"Fuw--"<br/>
<br/>
"Lie down before you faint," he commands. "I don't think we're in <em>any</em> condition to go anywhere yet." <br/>
<br/>
She thinks about moving up immediately, because <em>anything </em>Fuwa suggests is something she automatically rebels against - then abruptly reconsiders.</p><p>He <em>is</em> right, after all - but she'll never let him hear her say it.<br/>
<br/>
Just this once, she lets herself follow him. She closes her eyes... and <em>breathes</em>.<br/>
<br/>
The absence of Gai's orders is absolutely <em>deafening.</em><br/>
<br/>
But, she thinks, she'll never <em>not</em> relish the silence.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
Except Fuwa seems bent on breaking it when she feels him hover over her.<br/>
<br/>
"Yaiba?" He grabs her shoulders and shakes her, hard. "What the-- open your eyes, <em>Yaiba!"<br/>
<br/>
</em>Exactly <em>not </em>doing as he says, she pushes his face away and snarls, "Fuwa. Stop <em>yelling."</em><br/>
<br/>
She's had enough of that noise in her head, thank you.</p>
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